Improvement in carding-engines



. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

A. D. SHATTUCK, OF GRAFTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARDlNG-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,751, dated September 23, 1856.

ed and operated the main cylinder is cleared` or stripped by hand at intervals, the card being stopped at the time for the purpose. Upon every such occasion and after each stripping the operation of the card is modified and a variation in the lap is the consequence. This variation or unevenness of the lap runs through the Whole subsequent preparation of the cotton, and is even felt to a certain extent inthe thread which is ultimately produced.

Eorts have been made to do away with the necessity of hand-stripping and to avoid the objections to which this method is liable by the employment of a stripper-cylinder, which alternately runs faster and slower than the main cylinder, so that the stripper alternately strips the main cylinder, and in turn is stripped thereby as the relative velocities of the two change. that a card thus constructed and operated `cannot produce an even and uniform lap, as

at one time the stripper is taking cotton off the main cylinder. and at another is returning it thereto. To accomplish this end without the above-named objections 1s the object of my present invention, which consists in the use of two strippers to the main cylinder in connection with a dotfer which returns the cotton instantly to the main cylinder as fast as it is taken ott by the strippers, whereby an uninterrupted and continuous action is preserved not productive of the unevenness of lap before mentioned. The strippers are caused to run with a variable speed, each alternately faster and slower than the other and at a velocity alternately above and be- 10W that of the main cylinder, and thus one or other of them is constantly stripping the main cylinder, while the cotton taken off is It is evident, however,`

instantl y returned to the main cylinder either by the dotfer or by one of the strippers which at the time may be running slower than the cylinder and acting as a doer to the other strippers.

To enable others skilled in the art to underst-and my invention, I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried it out, premising with afew denitions necessary to a proper understanding of the subject. V

The small cylinders of carding-engines, which operate in conjunction with the main cylinder, are called f workers, doft'ers, or strippers according tothe nature of their operation with respect to each other or upon the main cylinder. Vorkers and doffers receive and strippers take the cotton from the cylinders.

A worker, iirst, runs slower than its cylinder; second, its teeth are set against the cylinder-teeth; third, it is cleaned'of its cotton by a stripper, from which the cotton is taken again by the cylinder.

Aedofter, first, runs slower than its cylinder; second, its teeth are set against the cylinder-teeth; third, itis cleaned of its cotton by a comb or by a stripper.

A stripper, first, runs faster than its cylinder; second, its teeth are set with the cylinder-teeth; third, it may be cleaned of. its cotton by another stripper or by a doffer or by a cylinder.

In the accompanying drawings, A is the main cylinder; B and C, two small cylinders, which are driven with a surface velocity somewhat less than that of the main cylinder by the band D from a pulleyE upon t-he shaft of the main cylinder. Upon the opposite end of the machine these cylinders carry the cones F and G, the band H, which actuates them, being regularly traversed from one end of the cones to the other by the guide I, which is moved regularly back and forth by a cam K upon the shaft ot' one 0f the small cylinders, or in any other customary and suitable manner. The peculiar method by which this is effected forms no part of my present invention and need not be further described.

. It is evident that as the band` H is shifted upon the cones one or other of the cylinders B and C will run faster than is dueto the motion of the driving-band D, and that some device is necessary to enable the cylinders to run independent of their pulleys M and N whenever their motiony is accelerated. This is effected in the following manner: The pulleys M and N are connected with the shafts of the cylinders by means of clutches so arranged that .whenever the cylinders are driven by their pulleys M and N these pulleys are clutched with the shafts; but whenever the cylinders run faster than is due to the motion of the` band D their shafts revolve freely within the pulleys. The device which I have chosen for this purpose is represented in Fig. 3, in which N is the pulley, Azthe shaft of the stripping-cylinder, m a pad or block which is secured to the shaft A2 by the bent spring 11which passes through a bolt or catch 0. The spring n revolves freely in the block r, projecting from the shaft. When the pulley revolves faster than the shaft, its friction uponv the pad drawsthe bolt o through the shaft and into one of the notches s in the wheel, and thus the latter communicates its motion to the shaft. When, however, the latter revolves faster than it is driven by the wheel, the pad m is driven in the opposite direction, the bolt 0. is unlocked from the Wheel, and the shaft revolves independently of the wheel.

The cylinder O is a worker. It runs uniformly with a velocity one-eighth that of the main cylinder, and is stripped by the Cylinder B.

The cylinder P is a doffer to the variable cylinder C. 1t runs uniformly and returns the cotton taken from this cylinder onto the main cylinder.

Q and S are Workers which operate in the ordinary Way upon the main cylinder.

R is a stripper to both the cylinders Q and S, by which arrangement of one stripper between the two workers the space occupied by one stripper is saved.

.T is the main doffer, from which the cotton is taken in the ordinary Way by the comb U.

1 will now describe more particularly the operation of that portion of the mechanism which forms the subject of my present invention.

rlhe cylinders B and C can never revolve with a velocity less than that due to the inotion of the band D. Either of them may, however, revolve With a greater velocity, as before explained. Suppose the band H to be upon the large end of the cone G and the smaller end of the cone F. The cylinder C cotton from its surface, and at. the same time stripping the Working-cylinder O. The cotton thus taken off by the cylinder B is carded onto the cylinder C, which now acts as a doffer to B, and as C now runs slower than the main cylinder it is stripped by the latter, and thus the main cylinder, the Worker O, and the cylinder C are stripped. As the band H is traversed back toward the machine the velocity of the cylinder B diminishes and that of the cylinder@ increases, and when the band has arrived at the small end of the cone G the cylinder Btravels with its minimum and C with its maximum velocity. The cylinder' B is now stripped by the main cylinder, though it continues to act as a stripper to the worker O. The main cylinder is now stripped by the cylinder C, which is doffed by the cylinder P, which in its turn is stripped by the main cylinder. Thus by the use of the two variable cylinders B and C running alternately above and below the velocity of the main cylinder and in connection with the doffer P all these cylinders as well as the Worker 0 are stripped and cleaned at short intervals `of time Without occasioning any break or unevenness in the lap and Without the necessity of stopping the engine for the purpose. It will be seen that this stripping process is also a carding process. In all other methods of carding heretofore used the stripping process is an interruption of the carding process. By the application of other variable cylinders in addition to those herein described, the carding ability ofthe machine maybe proportionally increased.

Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The application to the main cylinders of 

